Looks Like A Mirror Game

Illini, Purdue Are Similar In Many Respects

October 11, 1985|By Robert Markus, Chicago Tribune.

CHAMPAIGN — Even when Illinois was suffering the tortures of the damned, quarterback Jack Trudeau had no trouble looking at himself in the mirror every morning. But when he looks at himself in the mirror this week, he`s liable to see . . . Jim Everett.

Right down to their two veteran quarterbacks, Illinois and Purdue appear as alike as two football teams can get. ``This is such a mirror game,`` says Illinois coach Mike White, of Saturday`s Big 10 confrontation in West Lafayette, Ind.

``This should be an easy week of preparation,`` says his Purdue counterpart, Leon Burtnett. ``We both run the same offense.`` And the same defense, says White.

``It`s a kind of a unique situation,`` says Trudeau. ``Their offense is the same as ours. Our defense is the same as theirs. I kind of enjoy playing a team like this. They`re more like an NFL team. They`re willing to take a chance and that means there`s a chance for the big play. I enjoy practicing against our own defense from that standpoint.``

Illinois and Purdue play a lot of man-to-man pass coverage and for his part, Trudeau`s looking forward to it. ``From the films I`ve seen, it looks like they`re trying to be a more basic defense this year,`` he says. ``They`re trying not to be as freelance. But I still think they`ll use a lot of man defense. If they play the same defense they have in the past where they continually cheat, chances are they`re going to get hurt. I`m pretty good at reading defenses.

``When we get a receiver in single coverage we call him a robber. I`m pretty good at knowing where the robber`s at. In a game like this you could complete only 40 percent of your passes and yet throw for 500 yards and six touchdowns.``

Trudeau made it clear he was speaking for both quarterbacks. Both teams feel the defensive key is to put a rush on the opposing quarterback.

Everett often gets extra protection by throwing from the shotgun formation, even on first and second down. ``There`s some real advantage to the shotgun,`` says Burtnett. ``If you`re blitzing you`d better come up and show us or you`re going to have trouble getting there before he gets rid of the ball.``

And when Everett gets rid of the ball, he makes things happen for Purdue. In four games, he has thrown for 11 touchdowns.

Trudeau has thrown for only five and has yielded 10 interceptions to Everett`s three. But he was on target in the victory over Ohio State last Saturday and White points out, ``To engineer a touchdown drive against the wind when we`re down 28-14 shows what kind of tough-minded kid he is.

``He`s taken a lot of personal criticism but he`s handled it in a very classy way.``

``In those first three games I was aware it was not strictly Jack Trudeau making all those mistakes,`` Trudeau says. ``That in itself was reason enough to keep my head up. A quarterback has to be a little more confident than most people. My confidence in myself and the offense never left me.

``Yet I was concerned going into Saturday`s game just because we could have been a pretty good football team and still come out 1-3.``

Trudeau says he feels he got most of the blame for the Illini`s slow start because ``the average fan doesn`t know that much about the game. They`re not as aware of the complexities of offensive football as they think they are. ``When they see the quarterback throw the ball way downfield and there`s nobody there but the defense they don`t realize that maybe a receiver didn`t do what he was supposed to do.

``When people look at a team the first person they see is the quarterback. He`s the one who`s making the most visible mistakes, not the offensive guard who lets the guy through who cold-cocked the quarterback and made him throw a wounded duck.``